The book takes place in North America, which has been split into 12 districts. Seventy-five years in the past a civil war went on between the Capitol (the people completely in charge) and all of the districts. The war was soon over, and the Capitol won. Each year, to prove to the districts that they are in charge, the Capitol has the Hunger Games.

During the Hunger Games, the Capitol randomly picks two tributes: one male and one female between the ages of 12 to 18 from each district to compete in an arena. But the tributes don’t compete in sporting events. The tributes are given weapons and forced into a fight to the death. Read more…

I’m a bit late this month, I know… most of this month’s books are supposed to be humorous, although I did manage to also get through The Hunger Games(great book, by the way) so far this month. Anyway, here’s the quick list:

District 12, located in what was once known as the Appalachian Mountains in what was once known as North America, is one of the poorest of the 12 remaining districts of Panem. On a warm summer day, Katniss Everdeen makes her way to the reaping with the rest of the citizens of her district to find out whose names will be drawn for the Hunger Games.

Katniss, only 16 herself, volunteers to take her younger sister’s place in the games, a vicious death match designed by The Capitol to remind the 12 districts of Panem who’s really in charge. Every year, two tributes between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen from each district and dropped, Survivor style into unknown territory. Only, in this case, there’s no voting the competition off the island.

After a week of training, the tributes find themselves battling it out, fighting the Gamemakers, as well as each other as all of Panem watches on television. The tributes must kill or be killed. If they don’t kill each other fast enough, the Gamemakers manufacture their own surprising twists to keep the audience entertained. Read more…

Well, I am officially back to school for the spring semester, and I have a nice, heavy load of novels to read for my Literature & Humor – ENG 794.001 at Mount Mary College. Several of our February books are from my reading list for this course:

Emmaby Jane Austen: I’m actually most of the way through this one and am in the process of writing a response paper for the book.

It’s not a book, but I am including it on my list in case you’re interested in reading along… A Modest Proposalby Jonathan Swift. This is actually available online, so just click on the title to get there.